Google Maps Is Back On The iPhone: Native iOS App Released

Google has released its long-awaited map app for the iPhone. And it delivers all the expected features: voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, traffic, public transit, Street View and so on. It’s better than Google Maps for Android because it has been built or rebuilt “from the ground up” and didn’t grow by accretion. The bottom line: it delivers. Yet it’s also not 100 percent satisfying (at least in my initial test). I’m not sure what I was expecting. It’s not integrated with Siri. You can’t say “I need directions to San Francisco” and be taken to Google Maps, as you once could. Instead you’ll go to Apple Maps. You can however use Siri to launch Google Maps (“Open Google Maps”) and then conduct your local search or directions lookup. It’s also not integrated with Google’s iOS search app or Google search results on the mobile web. When you click a map image in either case y...